We caught up with the Facebook famous Barb and her father on Thursday for a lovely afternoon tea. They picked us up from our accommodation and drove us to a local shopping centre. It was great to finally meet Barb after chatting on Facebook and The Cheapskates Club for the last few years. If you are a member of pretty much any Facebook saving group, you'd have ' seen ' Barb there.
While in Brisbane, Darren and I also had picnic in the botanical gardens, took a Brisbane River cruise, rode the Brisbane Wheel ( a large Ferris wheel ), caught up with friends, ate out and shopped.
Due to our getaway, I had to move a couple of cleaning jobs around, so this week I've worked every day. Darren will only have Sunday off this week. With Darren's help I've managed to get our home back in order, cleaned the bathrooms and floors and unpacked the suitcases.
Here's what else I got up to this week -
* Refilled the foaming hand wash pumps around the home. We wash our hands fairly often so the pump need refilling every couple of weeks.
* Fed the compost with kitchen scraps.
* Gratefully received more lemons.
* Gratefully took home all the hotel shampoos, conditioners, coffee sticks, toiletries and condiments that came with breakfast.
* Stocked up on corned silverside at $6.99 kg.
* Bought a slow cooker at Savers op shop for $14.99. It's exactly the same as the one I already have so it will be great to have a back up. It's in near new condition.
* Planted lettuce seedlings, Brussel sprout seedlings, bush bean seeds and climbing bean seeds.
* Picked silverbeet for one meal.
* Bought chicken frames for $1.99 kg. I've already cooked up one in the slow cooker to make chicken stock, then chicken soup.
* Dried all the washing on the line.
* Gratefully received some card making supplies from Barb.
* Used our Flybuys dollars to buy lunch ingredients and fruit when we were in Brisbane.
* Fed weeds and bread crusts to the chickens. We let them free range a few times when we were home.
* Made pita chips for snacking.
* Packed biscuits, chocolate, tins of salmon, bottles of water, teabags and collapsible containers to save money on our holiday. We bought a salad bowl from Coles and added the salmon to the collapsible containers for our picnic lunch.
The Brisbane Botanical Gardens
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| Brisbane City |
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| Darren and a street performer |
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| Butterflies on a building in the Queen Street Mall |
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| Brisbane view from Mount Coot - tha |
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| Goodies collected from our room. |
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| The op shop slow cooker |
Beautiful pictures! How lovely that you got a vacation. It's always so much fun to explore a different area! And all those hotel samples!!! Welcome back. :)
ReplyDeleteThankyou. We had a great time
DeleteIt's raining here in Brissy today, Wendy, so I'm glad you had lovely weather for your holiday. Your photos of the Botanic Gardens have me thinking it's been a while since I've been in and I'd love to see all the Spring flowers! On the frugal front here:
ReplyDelete* filled up car at $1.32 per L before price rose to $1.60per L. :)
* shopped specials at supermarket and also got $10 off
* made all meals from scratch and packed lunches too
* made a lemon meringue pie for Fathers' Day family dinner
* happily received a dozen choc-chip muffins from my mother-in-law. Froze many.
* borrowed lots of books from the library this week.
* donated a box of books to the op-shop, lots of Enid Blyton stories for someone else to enjoy now.
* organised x-rays I need to have of my shoulder and elbow at place that bulk bills on Saturdays.
* made up a gift for a friend from my present box.
Today, I will buy some cucumber seedlings from the city farm nursery to plant out.
Have a happy weekend. Meg:)
I think we got the best weather Meg. I missed out on the cheap petrol. It went up while we were away.
DeleteHi Wendy
ReplyDeleteWell it looks like you had a wonderful short break. These are often the best type just a few days of exploring elsewhere. We have one coming up in a few weeks time so I am really looking forward to that.
The weather for the start of spring here was unbelievably hot with temps hitting between 33 and 35 for the first 2 days.
I usually only stop off at the airport in Brisbane so have never been to the botanical gardens but your photos make me want to plan a trip there in the future and spring looks like the time to do this adventure with all the wonderful flowers.
My week was more busy with working on DD8's dance costume, although sourced mainly by the teacher I still needed to sew buttons on the front of a shirt, trim the wig, make sure I had make up that would suit her fair skin but it is a little bit of fun for her to be wearing make up.
As for savings this week well not a lot except to open up the house and air it out. I made the decision a few weeks ago that instead of buying the office ladies and the tuckshop ladies a small gift for Christmas I would buy them a coffee from next month each, one lot one week and then the next two as I think this is better than them receiving something they do not need and with the last coffee I will give them one of my Christmas hand towels.
Well I hope you have a wonderful weekend and can catch up on a little rest after having to work all week.
Take care
Aly xxx
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ReplyDeleteGreat find with the slow cooker! Mine is the same and I use it all the time. I often buy the chicken frames when I fee them out to make up big batches of broth but I have not seen them recently. I should ask about them.
ReplyDeleteHmm, I will be making soap this weekend, which is a big saving when you look at the price of a similar quality soap with high quality essential oils and soothing oates for my sons skin.
I will be bottling up a fresh batch of kombucha, making sourdough, squeezing oranges for fresh juice and baking an orange cake for next weeks lunches, and making sushi for lunch. My kids love sushi but to feed our family it costs a fortune if we were to buy it out.
The Botanic gardens there look absolutely stunning and Im glad you enjoyed your time away.
xx
Hi Wendy and I am glad you were able to spend time away as a couple together and that is what DH and I like to do is take off for a few days break every now and again :). We also like to pack our own food to take along rather than buying takeaway that is so expensive usually.
ReplyDeleteOur savings for last week added up to $485.97 :).
Blessings -
- A friend had too many eggs from her chickens and gave us 3 dozen free range eggs saving us $12.
Finances & free internet listings -
- Banked more money into our saving for our home bank account bringing us to 28.49% of the way there.
- Listed 58 free listings on eBay taking advantage of a free listing and final auction value fee promotion saving $95.70 on usual listing fees.
Earnings -
- Earned $35.35 from the sale of dried thyme picked and dried from the gardens and a handmade A4 notebook cover which we banked some of and purchased other needed items for the home with.
Purchases -
- Purchased 123 x 50ml unused glass amber bottles from the tip op shop for .10c ea saving $61.50 on usual prices. We will save some for us to use for vanilla extracts and other extracts as well as essential oils and sell the rest on the internet so ours will be free.
- Whilst at the op shop I picked up a lovely book on herbs and herbal remedies for .20c saving $4.75 on the cover retail price.
Firewood and in the gardens -
- Cut a cubic metre of Ironbark firewood from a friends farm saving $200 over purchasing it locally.
- Divided off 4 new thyme plants from thyme in the gardens saving $18 over purchasing them in the local nurseries.
- Harvested lots of French and English lavender from the gardens to dry for home use and for sale.
- Planted 2 x 2 mt rows of turnip seeds in the gardens.
- Used saved dish rinsing and shower warm up water to water fruit tree pot plants and newly planted vegetable seeds in the gardens.
In the kitchen -
- Made a double batch of choc chip and coconut queen biscuits weighing from items we had here saving $11.77 over purchasing the same amount and similar quality in the shops.
- Made or started 600 ml of vanilla extract from vanilla beans I purchased on a 16.66% price discount using our $240 for $200 Woolworth e-voucher saving $46.90 over purchasing it in the local supermarket.
Hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead :).
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).
I am so glad you enjoyed your time in my beautiful city.
ReplyDeleteIt has been a busy week. I have had a friend visit from Sydney and yesterday was my only grandchild's first birthday. We managed to buy fuel before the price rise. I made many things for the birthday party today. We contributed two loaves worth of sandwiches, chocolate chip and salted caramel biscuits and scones. I also made two batches of strawberry jam on Monday because I bought strawberries at $1 for 500g. Even though I am so very tired tonight I made sure to eat from home instead of out.
Enjoy your strawberry jam Susan. The fruit has been really cheap lately.
DeleteIt’s always lovely to get away for a few days Wendy and recharge the batteries .Your pics are just lovely
ReplyDeleteCoralee
Thankyou, we had a great time.
DeleteI always bring home all the freebies from hotels.
ReplyDeleteWe pay for them so why not ?
DeleteI love that you would not need a heater if we ever lived in QLD, but the humidity!! The slow cooker, what a bargain - we have a very big one and a small one and we use both regularly or both if we are having a hoard of people over.
ReplyDeleteI just love a slow cooker roast or stew.
DeleteWow what great pictures of your little trip. Great find with the slow cooker. I have had a couple of trips an hour away to see Medical specialists and I took my own lunch and coffee each day savings a fortune. I am decluttering at the moment. Cooked food at home. I was given lunch when I volunteered at the school canteen. Borrowed a couple of magazines from the library rather than buying them.
ReplyDeleteI am saving my fifty cent coins towards our next holiday. Getting ready to plant some seeds for summer vegetables.
Working about three days a week and paying the bills down. Thanks for blessing us with your wisdom and friendship.
Janine